Andreas Peter Hovgaard

Andreas Peter Hovgaard (1 November 1853 – 15 March 1910) was a Danish naval officer and Arctic explorer.

Andreas Hovgaard
Hovgaard in 1901
Born1 November 1853
Aarhus, Denmark
Died15 March 1910 (1910-03-16) (aged 56)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Allegiance Denmark
Service/branch Royal Danish Navy
Years of service1871–1909
RankCommander
Commands heldMail steamer Thyra
Cruiser Heimdall
Coastal Defense Ship Olfert Fischer
AwardsService Medal
Order of the Dannebrog
Dannebrogordenens Hæderstegn
RelationsWilliam Hovgaard's brother
1907 Russian engraving of the Varna (left) and the Dijmphna in the Kara Sea before both vessels got stuck in the ice.
Map of the drift of the Dijmphna in the Kara Sea 1882–83.
Coastal Defense Ship HDMS Olfert Fischer (1900-1938).

Hovgaard became a sub-lieutenant of the Danish Navy in 1874, rising to the rank of lieutenant in 1876, captain in 1888 and Commander in 1901. He retired from active service in 1909.

Career

Andreas Hovgaard was the son of Ole Anton Hovgaard (1821–1891) and Louise Charlotte Munch (1823–1872). Little is known about his early life, except that he joined the Danish Navy and quickly rose in the ranks. In 1878 Hovgaard, as a young lieutenant, became a member of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld's Vega Expedition in which he was in charge of making meteorological as well as geomagnetic observations.[1] Shortly after returning to Denmark he married Sophie Christiane Nielsen (1856–1934) and published his report Nordenskiölds rejse omkring Asien og Europa about the first Arctic expedition that navigated successfully through the Northeast Passage.[2]

In 1882 Hovgaard led the Dijmphna Expedition, an Arctic survey expedition to explore the unknown northeastern limits of the Kara Sea on steamship Dijmphna, financed by Danish trader Augustin Gamél (1839–1904) who would also later assist Fridtjof Nansen. The Dijmphna became stuck in the ice off Dikson while trying to rescue the Dutch Polar Expedition's ship Varna,[3] which was surveying the mouth of the Yenisei.[4] During the 1882/83 winter it began a long drift in the Kara Sea that prevented the expedition from accomplishing its goals. The ship was able to return home only with the 1883 summer thaw,[5] the Varna becoming lost.[6]

In 1887 he served in the Danish ironclad Dannebrog, the ship of the King of Denmark, Christian IX. From 1890 to 1893 Hovgaard became the Captain of Mail steamer Thyra, which plied the route to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Later he would be in command of Cruiser Heimdall and of Coastal Defense Ship Olfert Fischer.[2]

Andreas Hovgaard was the President of the Danish Naval Officers Association (Søofficers-Foreningen) between 1907 and 1909.[7]

Honours

Hovgaard Island in Greenland, Hovgaard Island (Ostrov Khovgarda) in the Nordenskiöld Archipelago of the Kara Sea, Russia, Hovgaard Island in Antarctica, and the Hovgaard Islands in Nunavut, Canada, were named after him.[8]

Works
  • Nordenskiölds Reise omkring Asien og Europa - Populairt fremstillet efter mine Dagböger, 1915 (Danish)
  • Forslag til en dansk arktisk expedition, Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1882[9]
  • Dijmphna-Expeditionen 1882–83. Rapporter til Dijmphna’s Rheder, Kopenhagen 1884 (Danish)
  • Die Eiszustände im Karischen Meere, Gotha 1884 (German)
  • Compasset i Jernskibe, Kopenhagen 1888 (Danish)
  • Under Islands Kyst, 1906 (Danish)

See also

References
  1. Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld: Die Umsegelung Asiens und Europas auf der Vega. Mit einem historischen Rückblick auf frühere Reisen längs der Nordküste der Alten Welt. German edition, Vol. 1, F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1882, p. 36
  2. A. P. Hovgaard in the Dansk biografisk leksikon
  3. Louwrens Hacquebord: The Netherlands – Beset in the Ice of the Kara Sea. In: Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (eds.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-12401-3, p. 66
  4. Knud Rasmussen: Heldenbuch der Arktis. Entdeckungsreisen zum Nord- und Südpol. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1933, p. 176
  5. Frank Rust (1883). "The Dutch Polar Expedition of 1882-3". Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York. 15: 375–380. doi:10.2307/196548. JSTOR 196548.
  6. A fresh Arctic disaster; loss of the Dutch exploring steamer Varna. The New York Times, September 01, 1883
  7. Søofficers-Foreningen
  8. "Catalogue of place names in northern East Greenland". Geological Survey of Denmark. Retrieved 18 June 2016.
  9. The Danish-Arctic Expedition, English edition
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